


Worth a Thousand Words

by ShadowyTwilight



Series: Hope is a Fragile Thing [6]
Category: Alpha and Omega - Patricia Briggs
Genre: Eventual Romance, F/M, Feelings, Leah is dead, Slow Burn, Werewolf Mates, bran cornick needs love too, patient hunter, soft morning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:34:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27569119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowyTwilight/pseuds/ShadowyTwilight
Summary: In which Bran wakes up to a picture perfect morning after a heart to heart with Rynn.
Relationships: Bran Cornick/Original Character(s)
Series: Hope is a Fragile Thing [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1928386
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	Worth a Thousand Words

The stiff way Tamarind perched on the edge of the sofa reminded Bran of someone, but he couldn’t put his finger on who. It was the faintest nudge of a memory deep in his subconscious of some frightened submissive from oceans away. When you lived longer than a lifetime, hurt seems to echo back through the years. He raised his hand to rub his face, and suddenly Rynn wasn’t beside him. Landing on the ground with enough force to bruise her knees, Tamarind held her arms as a shield, and … “Zack.”

Confused eyes locked with his, there was no wolf in her gaze, just fear. Moving slowly so as not to frighten her further, Bran slipped off the couch to sit cross legged on the floor next to her. “You remind me of a wolf I found once, in what was formerly Czechoslovakia. There had been a monster in Europe I needed to deal with, but in doing so I was limited by European alphas. It had been days of meetings and such, but somehow he had found me in one of the only minutes I had alone. Zack had been traumatized in ways he wouldn’t speak of, but begged me to get him to America. As he sat there in front of me, I remember thinking about just how brittle he seemed. Like hope was the only thing holding him together.” 

Bran paused for a moment to draw a blanket down around Tamarind’s shaking shoulders. He frowned thoughtfully when she didn’t draw back away, their shoulders almost touching. 

“Did you leave him there?” 

“No. I would never turn from someone who asked for help that is in my power to give. Even if it is not, what kind of man turns away a victim? My biggest regret is that it took almost six months to arrange it, things were not as easy to manipulate in the 1940s as they are today. His father was and is a very influential man. But I got him to relative safety as quickly as I could. It’s been sixty years and Zack still hasn’t settled down with a pack. A submissive needs roots to flourish, and I worry about him. I worry that something was broken and I was too slow to fix. Just like I worry about--” You. He bit off the last word with a huff. He would never be able to look at his smug daughter-in-law again. 

Golden eyes looked knowingly at him before fading back to brown. He tucked a stray strand of hair back behind her ear.

“Does she do that often?” The question slipped out before he even thought.

“Does who do what? Mary Berry is the judge, if that’s what you mean.” She gestured noncommittally at the tv still playing in front of them.

He cracked a smile. “That’s not what I meant. I was talking about your wolf. She seems to slip in and out so quickly her scent doesn’t even linger.” 

There was a bark of bitter laughter from the pile of blankets beside him. “I’m lucky if I’m able to even change for the full moon. If she’s there, she’s of no help to me. I used to beg for a change, anything to make the pain stop, but she was gone. When I needed her most, just someone to be there in the midst of hell, I was all alone. She did this to us. She did this to me. We would have died there, and she would have just let it happen.” 

Wordlessly he scooped up the softly crying bundle and settled back on the couch with her sobbing into his chest. For once Bran had nothing to say. She was right. But sooner or later, Tamarind was going to have to forgive her wolf. 

It felt like a lifetime before he felt her crying slow and her breathing even out. He wiped the tears from her cheeks and wrapped the blanket snug around her. She was clutching the front of his shirt like a lifeline, white-knuckled grip with both hands. Bran sighed. One more episode and he would carry his wayward wolf to bed. 

“After all, it would be cruel to wake her now,” he thought as he settled in to watch who was going to the quarter finals and who was being sent home. 

Even phone cameras make a sound. That nearly silent ‘click’ was all it took to raise Bran back to the land of the living. Soft morning light was streaming through the windows, and Anna was trying to breathe silently in the doorway. The glare he shot her way could have levelled cities, but all she did was giggle quietly and snap another picture. 

Tamarind woke slowly, and not in her bed. She burrowed in closer to the warmth, and rubbed her nose against the soft smell of snow, and pine trees, and wolf and...Bran! Mortified, Rynn cracked open her eyes to see herself plastered against her alpha like a wayward teen. She felt heat burn from her neck to her ears. Babbling an apology, Rynn tumbled off his lap, disappearing upstairs still wrapped in her blanket. 

“You ruined a very promising morning,” He muttered in Anna’s direction.

“Keep up that attitude and I won’t send you the picture,” She grinned at the red tinge to his cheeks. 

“Believe me when I say, it was not what it looked like.” She snorted in disbelief, turning back to the kitchen where he assumed Charles was waiting. “And Anna?” She paused at the door to look back at him, “You’re sending me that picture.”

**Author's Note:**

> So sorry my lovelies, this one would have been posted sooner, but life got in the way. Hopefully back to weekly updates!


End file.
